For well over 100 years, piston-based internal combustion engines have worked by firing the pistons one at a time to turn a flywheel that generates power. Specifically, power is generated by compression, ignition, and expansion strokes of the Otto-cycle. Such standard piston-based internal combustion engines have worked well to produce abundant power to operate vehicles and machinery. Although such standard piston engines work well to produce power, the pistons operate in a way those results in heavy maintenance due to the constant up and down pounding of the pistons. In addition, the pistons fight against each other when pounding up and down, resulting in restricted performance of the engine. In the end, standard piston engines require a high level of maintenance to keep the engine in working order. This is problematic for many consumers who purchase cars, trucks, and other vehicles with standard piston engines. Most consumers do not want or know how to repair or replace damaged and/or worn out pistons. Thus, in order to maintain the engine, most consumers end up paying an automobile mechanic a lot of money on engine upkeep. Even if a consumer knows how to repair and/or replace engine parts, such as pistons, the cost of replacement parts adds up quickly. Eventually, most consumers end up paying a considerable sum of money to maintain the engine.
Other engine designs exist, such as rotary engines, which do not use pistons to produce power. While the concept of pistonless rotary engines has been around for nearly a century, development of the technology has been slow moving with few designs ever reaching the production stage. In general, rotary engines to date have been daunted by a number of problems that limit their wide-spread general use in cars and trucks. The most widely known rotary engine is the Wankel engine, which is one of few rotary engines currently in production (e.g., by Mazda Motor Corp.). However, current rotary engines are plagued by exceedingly high fuel requirements needed to produce power, the environmental damage caused by the amount of pollution released into the air, and faulty components such as seals that know to leak after a short amount of routine use.
Thus, what is needed is a non-piston engine that efficiently generates power in a way that minimizes maintenance by providing balanced flywheel rotation and by reducing internal pressure on the engine due the elimination of pounding by pistons.